Belize police urge McAfee to turn himself in

Nov. 13, 2012
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Anti-virus pioneer John McAfee during a May 2 interview with News 5 Belize about an April 30 raid of his home and compound by the country's Gang Suppression Unit. He was arrested for unlicensed drug manufacturing and illegal firearms. The government later dropped all charges. / News5 Belize

by Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY

by Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY

Police in Belize urged software company founder John McAfee on Tuesday to come in for questioning over the shooting death of his neighbor, but McAfee, proclaiming his innocence, has told Wired magazine that he fears for his life and has gone into hiding.

McAfee, 67, is being sought by police as a "person of interest" in the death of Gregory Faull, a 52-year-old builder from Florida whose body was found in a pool of blood this weekend at his home on the island of Ambergris Caye off the Belize coast.

Faull died of a gunshot wound to the head Saturday night. Police said a computer and phone were missing from his house.

"Losing Greg leaves a hole in our hearts and our lives," his family said in a statement Tuesday. "We urge law enforcement authorities in Belize and internationally to bring those responsible to justice quickly."

Police called to the scene also searched McAfee's nearby house early Sunday, but said they found no one there.

McAfee, however, has spoken by phone with Wired magazine's Joshua Davis and said he was on the property that morning and saw the police arriving. He said he hid in the sand under a cardboard box because he feared for his life.

"I thought maybe they were coming for me," McAfee told Davis. "They mistook him for me. They got the wrong house. He's dead. They killed him. It spooked me out."

Raphael Martinez, spokesman for Belize's Ministry of National Security, urged McAfee to turn himself in.

"We want to encourage him to come in," Martinez told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "If he feels threatened, we need to tell him, 'Get someone to go along with you, but come in. Let's solve this crime and you can free yourself.' "

Martinez said two people have been detained in the investigation for questioning. But he added that police have yet to establish a motive in the crime.

Jeff Wise, writing for Gizmodo, reported on Monday that McAfee and Faull had been "at odds for some time."

Wired's Davis said he got an e-mail Friday night from McAfee in which he said four of his dogs had been poisoned, blaming it on Belizean authorities with a vendetta against him.

"The coast guard dropped off a contingent of black-suited thugs at 10:30 tonight at the dock next door," McAfee wrote in the e-mail to Davis on Friday night. "They dispersed on the beach. A half hour later all of my dogs had been poisoned. Mellow, Lucky, Dipsy, and Guerrero have already died."

McAfee, has had a complicated relationship with Belize police and political figures since he moved to the island three years ago.

Last April, Belize police raided his home looking for drugs and guns. McAfee said officers found guns, which he said were legal, and he was released without charges after being detained for a few hours.

Yet, just last Thursday McAfee appeared at a public ceremony with the mayor of San Padro and police officials where he donated equipment - including Tasers, handcuffs, flashing lights, metal detectors, pistol belts, pepper spray and batons - to the San Pedro Police Department, Ambergris Today reported.

The newspaper's website showed several photos of McAfee with local officials at the ceremony.

Gizmodo also reported that McAfee was involved in the "intensive use of psychosis-inducing hallucinogens" and that this "would go a long way toward explaining his growing estrangement from his friends and from the community around him."

One resident of the island told the AP that Faull had complained about McAfee's behavior, and others said the former software executive was hard to befriend. Some residents told the AP that McAfee seemed standoffish and not friendly.

"His physical appearance doesn't really inspire you to go over and make friends with him. He's a little scruffy looking," one real estate agent, Bob Hamilton, told the AP.

The case was the latest twist in McAfee's recent life as an eccentric yoga lover. He sold his stake in his software company in the early 1990s and moved to Belize to lower his taxes.

He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis.